WIN Profiles

"I have an insatiable desire to solve problems. This is what attracted me to the Cisco Learning Network. I enjoy not only solving problems, but also helping others along their path to achieve their goals. I believe participating in forums relating to networking is one of the best ways to question a concept and understand why it works the way it does."

Sarah, one of our Cisco Learning Network VIPs, began her career as a web designer before switching over to networking. It was an obvious choice for her once she realized how fascinated she was with internetworking. After making the switch, she immersed herself in studying on a regular basis. Three years later, she holds her Cisco CCNP Routing and Switching certification and is actively studying for the CCIE Routing and Switching exam.

"Although I have always been mathematically apt, interested in sciences and rather tech-savvy, IT was not always an obvious choice as a career option for me. There were other paths that I was seriously considering before arriving at the decision to go for IT. I have no regrets."

Riikka, often also known as "Sir", "Mr. Sihvonen", or "She's the man", is a Network Engineer and overall technology aficionado. She currently works as a Data Center Technician for a local service provider. Her main responsibilities include maintaining and developing data center operations. Riikka received her Bachelor's degree in 2012, and academic success earned her an honorary scholarship.

Riikka is tirelessly working to obtain more, and is now pursuing her CCIE. In addition to being an avid learner, Riikka is an enthusiastic teacher of networking technologies. She strongly believes in education, and she likes to share her knowledge by replying to questions in detail, producing technical content, and contributing to a blog.

Nikita holds a CCIE in Routing and Switching. She has worked with Cisco TAC and is now a Content Engineer in Cisco Learning. She has closely worked on designing the new CCNP v2 Routing and Switching Courses.

Antonella has over 20 years of experience in the telecommunication and networking industry, in the United States and Europe. She has been working on many of the major technology evolutions like ATM, IP, Storage Area Network, access network technologies. She has been working both in the product development and in the training and certification programs.

Antonella has been responsible for research projects sponsored by the European Community, has been part of the development team of Windows 2000 working for Microsoft, and has been in the development team creating the MDS product line. Later she joined the Learning@Cisco team being responsible for the CCIE Storage certification track, and then the Data Center certification track (CCNA, CCNP, CCIE). Lately she has been involved into the development of SDN certifications for individuals.

Antonella has more than 10 patents in her names on switching technologies and several publications in international conferences and papers.